Marin target of ‘jury duty scam’ recounts ploy

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Lizanne thought she was in trouble. The man on the phone with her Wednesday afternoon spoke with the authority and drawl of the sheriff’s lieutenant he said he was, telling her that there was a bench warrant out for her arrest for failure to show up for jury duty in Marin County.

“He said that the warrant had been issued and that they could come and arrest me but as a courtesy, because of a special condition on the warrant, they were calling me,” she said. “I believed it to be legitimate and I didn’t know what to do.”

A man identifying himself as Lt. Ron Hart told her she would have to pay $750 that would be returned to her if the court verified her claim that she had not received a jury summons.

“It was all feeling right to me until he asked me if I was familiar with the (Green Dot) MoneyPak system,” whose reloadable debit cards have been used in the past by scammers, said Lizanne, who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her safety.

The “lieutenant” made another slip-up. He claimed to be with the San Rafael Sheriff’s Department, which doesn’t exist. When Lizanne called the San Rafael Police Department, the response was immediate.

“I barely had it out of my mouth when the officer said, ‘No it’s a scam! it’s a scam!’” she said.

San Rafael police Sgt. Carl Huber said his agency had received a couple of similar reports in the past month. Throughout the Bay Area, law enforcement officials have been warning the public to be wary of such scams and to question anyone asking for personal information, even if the person claims to be law enforcement.

“It’s a fairly common scam, but it’s kind of a more sinister version of the Nigerian lottery ploys,” Huber said. “This is more aggressive. People actually believe they’re in legal trouble and the scammers rightly believe they’ll be a little bit more motivated to cooperate with them when they’re facing incarceration.”

San Mateo police recently warned the public of phone scams involving not just law enforcement, but PG&E officials and IRS agents collecting on debts.

Huber said there’s not much the public can do but to be aware that these cons are happening and to question whoever is on the other line. Fortunately, he said, neither of the recent jury-scam targets forked over any money, after calling San Rafael police to see what was going on.

“Our recommendation is to just don’t fall for it,” he said. “Obviously, if there are some legal issues you may have as a person, you’re going to get a lot of correspondences, not just somebody calling to ask you for money.”

Lizanne said that after she got over the initial shock of the scam, she grew angry, thinking about how easy it was for the caller to scare her. He had even left her a callback number, and when she called it back, he had a voice mail recording for Lt. Ron Hart.

“I consider myself to be pretty savvy and I was pretty intimidated and fearful at the beginning,” she said. “It just made me mad, after I realized what happened. First I felt stupid for initially being afraid, and then I thought, I just know — there are going to be people that are going to be duped.”